Ancient paintings of aliens and spacemen?

[Abe]

I recently came under a lot of social fire for dismissing the ancient paintings of "spacemen" wearing "space helmets" that people like Erich Von Daniken claim are incontrovertible evidence for the existence and presence here at one point or another of alien life forms.

I have never seen the paintings of these space suits, but I am sure that they can be explained quite easily as either a flight of artistic fancy, or armour. When I mentioned flight of fancy I was told that these people were living thousands of years ago. What: did they lack the imagination to think of funky attire/appearances/beings back then??

My suggestion that the paintings could be armour or other common bodywear was shot down with the comment that 3,000 years ago or more people didn't have armour. Yeah, right.

I am interested in hearing more about this ridiculous topic. I am not discussing the possibility of alien life, which I am sure exists somewhere in this vast universe. I am questioning that someone would paint aliens that look like us wearing space suits. The likelihood of alien life forms that resemble us is extremely low. The likelihood of aliens finding our planet on the edge of a galaxy thousands of years before we begin to make electromagnetic noise is highly unlikely. Anyway, I am interested in learning more about these paintings, if I can find them online I would be grateful for a link.

My own search on the web turned up a large number of wild claims and rabid web sites. Possibly the clearest-headed one I found is at http://buferd.a1pro.net/~kb6dj/chap1.html (skip to Chapter II). The sort of evidence provided on that web site sounds very sketchy; using evidence like that you could make a case for almost anything. I know I can probably form cases against most of these claims but I hardly have the time to disprove absurd claims--HOW do I explain this to those who are desperate to believe in best-selling books that make charlatans sell 28 million copies?? I am also interested in the reactions of the readers of these boards

You simply can't explain Occam's Razor to most people out there, they are allergic to the straight path. Help me out!

Abe

PS: Carl Sagan's "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" does not work with most people.

[Czarcasm]

Finding evidence of "ancient astronauts" is pretty much like finding predictions in the poetry of Nostrodamus. You are not going to see it yourself until someone with a desire to make money and/or gain publicity points it out to you. One man's sun painting is another man's spaceship.

[SkeptiJess]

James Randi's _Flim-Flam_ has a good chapter on "the Ancient Astronauts." If you don't have a copy you can get it from your local library. I don't think (I lent my copy to my sis-in-law so I can't double check) it has any pictures of the supposed "spaceman" but it's an interesting and informative read, nonetheless. Randi is kind of a smart-mouth but, hey -- I think most skeptics like that about him. I know I do! I got an argument out of this book, BTW, that I have actually used in conversation with people who have been convinced by Von Daniken's malarky. Randi makes the point that Von Daniken's theories are racist. European wonders like the Parthenon are never attributed to "spacemen." Only the contributions of dark-skinned peoples are questioned. This was obvious enough to start many of my friends thinking, and once they started thinking it was a good deal harder to believe in Von Daniken's baloney. Oh, and if you just want to see the "spaceman" pictures, why don't you find a book on "ancient mysteries." Goodness knows there are enough of them out there and you don't have to read the words!

------------------
Jess
Full of 'satiable curtiosity

[E1skeptic]

Try this:

http://skepdic.com/vondanik.html

------------------
Men will cease to commit atrocities only when they cease to believe absurdities.
-Voltaire

[E1skeptic]

Here's a link to other links:

ancientastronauts (http://ufos.miningco.com/msub30.htm?TMog=93783509320327&Mint=334076423123213)

Enjoy!

[DougC]

- - - I saw a TV show (I think Art C.Clarke's "Mysterious Planet") once that presented two examples of "unknown" concepts: one was a carving of what looked kinda like an astronaut in a Central or South American Inca/Mayan (or maybe some other) tomb. There were no other images near it that resembled it. - The second example was that in a few very old European portrait paintings, there were silvery-white football-shaped objects in the sky, in the background. Some UFO's seen in the last few decades have been described as appearing basically the same.
-
- The show simply pointed out that these artifacts couldn't be explained. They only mentioned that some people connect them with ancient aliens. - MC

Re- space helmets

Think "ritual masks" --for religious services , et al.

[David B]

MC said:I saw a TV show (I think Art C.Clarke's "Mysterious Planet") once that presented two examples of "unknown" concepts: one was a carving of what looked kinda like an astronaut in a Central or South American Inca/Mayan (or maybe some other) tomb. There were no other images near it that resembled it. - The second example was that in a few very old European portrait paintings, there were silvery-white football-shaped objects in the sky, in the background. Some UFO's seen in the last few decades have been described as appearing basically the same.It's hard to respond to this without knowing more details, but regarding the football-shaped objects -- you could say the same thing ("Some UFOs seen in the last few decades have been described as appearing basically the same") for just about any shape!
The show simply pointed out that these artifacts couldn't be explained.Of course it did. That's their job. Unsolved Mysteries has been known to leave a mystery "mysterious" even when the answer has been presented to them. Unfortunately, it seems they don't think highly enough of the viewing public to think that a show titled Solved Mysteries would succeed.

[mr john]

MC,if it is the same carving it is Mayan.I saw a photo in a book ,don't know if it was one of VonDanikens, a gut on his back in a 'capsule' below him all the inner parts of a rocket.next to it a line drawing of the same,with the pertinent parts emphasised. damn! sure looked like fuel tanks,jet nozzles ,etc. Then I looked at the photo again sideways. A guy sitting on a bench throne, emphasise some other details and; bags of tribute (?),little statues,jewels etc. behind him. However ,I have seen some picto graphs in a secluded canyon in New Mexico(nowhere near Roswell, wise guy) there are some mysterious images that no one has successfully interpreted. .Seems to have been two waves of artists there, the latter from the planet Kilroy .

------------------
"............"-Marx

[Abe]

Thanks to everyone who provided the links to and contributed to the discussion of my problem with ancient astro-NUTS. I appreciate it, and armed with these references I will continue to stand my ground in the face of the scorching passion of ignorance.

[David B]

Fight the good fight, Abe!

[Jake]

E1skeptic:

Great web site! Thanks a bunch